Chrome vs Firefox 3.6 vs Safari vs Webkit: Chrome Wins Again!
This benchmark has been updated with Firefox 3.6 release version, safari 4.0.4 and Chrome 4.0.29
In the last JavaScript performance shootout Chrome was the clear winner. This time, inclusion of Webkit in the shootout has made the results less decisive. Overall Chrome is still the winner because it has such a huge lead over others in the V8 benchmark suite but in real world usage it is difficult to distinguish between Chrome and Webkit. Google Wave is a very JavaScript intensive application and it makes Firefox 3.5 crawl but using it in both Chrome and Webkit is a breeze while Safari struggles ever so slightly. It is interesting to note that, while there is an appreciable difference between the Sunspider scores of Webkit and Safari, their V8 scores came out almost identical.
The last data point (October 29th) of Safari and Firefox is from Webkit and 3.6b1 respectively. Since Chrome is only a developer preview it made sense to compare it to the development versions of the other browsers. Webkit changes don’t always appear in Safari immediately and there is no published timeline unlike Firefox. Firefox is closing the gap in performance but in absolute terms it is still far behind Chrome and Safari. Both these browsers is 2 times better than Firefox on Sunspider scores. Also in V8 benchmark, Chrome is 10 times better than Firefox, Safari is 6.7 times better than Firefox and Chrome is 1.5 times better than Safari.Chrome is improving its scores in both the benchmarks while Firefox and Safari stagnates in the V8 benchmark suite.
Browser Versions Used are Firefox 3.5.4, Firefox 3.6b1, Safari 4.0.3, Webkit Nightly and Chrome Developer Preview. Sunspider is the benchmark suite of Webkit (Safari) and V8 is the benchmark suite created by Google Chrome developers.
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Saying as historical versions of all these browsers are available for download, it would be great to plot performance against release date for each browser version back to Firefox 2.0.
Sunspider released by safari and v8 by google, and those browsers seem to perform better. What a shocker.
Nice review. Thanks
Why is it surprising that chrome and webkit are head-to-head? They're the same browser engine, just different window controls
Because these are javascript tests. Chrome uses the V8 javascript
engine which was fully developed by google. Webkit uses Squirrelfish
as the JS engine. Only the rendering engine is same between both of
them.
2009/11/9 Disqus <>:
what a confusing article. V8 is a Javascript engine, and Webkit is a browser engine, used by Safari, Chrome and a zillion other browsers. What does the bar of Webkit means?
Besides, JavaScript benchmarking should not be taken that literally, specially because you are using V8 benchmarking on V8 engine. I wouldnt be surprised if Firefox makes a JavaScript benchmaring suite that makes Firefox look like the absolute winner.
Webkit is also a browser. http://webkit.org/ You can download the
nightlies.
V8 benchmark is by google and sunspider benchmark is by webkit developers.
Chrome comes out on top in both the benchmarks.
Well that’s OK and all but its only javascript benchmarks, it doesn’t include others. While it is a good indication of that performance chrome is lacking very much in other areas. Its near the bottom. People do not mention those others for those reasons. Also chrome is not optimized for AMD processors. Sorry PC folks with AMD chips. Its only intel chip optimized….
Care to comment what those other benchmarks might be? Also, what basis do you have for your Intel vs AMD comment? Does Chrome generate specific instruction sequences that do not run as efficiently on AMD processors?
Chrome: http://i260.photobucket.com/albums/ii21/palmer640/Browser%20Benchmarks/chrome-score.png
FF: http://i260.photobucket.com/albums/ii21/palmer640/Browser%20Benchmarks/FF-score.png
Safari: http://i260.photobucket.com/albums/ii21/palmer640/Browser%20Benchmarks/Safari-score.png
Intel only my ass!! It actually runs faster on AMD chips. Stats will show you this.
Also, yes, chrome is the fastest and best performing. It might not have a whole bunch of extra graphic features that do nothing but take up space on your screen and use a lot of memory like firefox does], but that’s one reason a lot of people use it [for the clean and simple look, which I also prefer] and the main reason why its much faster.
It’s not faster in every single aspect, but overall, yes… it is considered the best performing browser. Safari 4 is considered the SECOND best performing browser since both Safari and Chrome actually SHARE the same webkit [believe it or not]…
Only Ultra-Geeks worry about Javascript numbers. Normal people care about FEATURES and usability more than loading Javascript (what do you read 1000 page long blogs every day and nothing else or what?). Firefox trounces EVERYTHING ON EARTH when it comes to sheer features and expansion capability. You can customize it to be almost anything you want. With Safari and Chrome you’re stuck with whatever crap is spoon fed to you. Forget about customization. Javascript speed is all you will get. If that’s all you care about, great. There’s a reason Firefox has almost 25% of the market while Chrome and Safari are under 5% each and it has little to do with speed. One would think that Mac users would appreciate the sheer usability of Firefox over Safari, but they worship only Apple made products so half of them don’t get it. Chrome users worship Google and probably hope Google will take over the world. They probably enjoy giving their personal data to Google to use as only Big Brother can because that is what Chrome does, it monitors your key presses and hands them over to Google for a rainy day in the future. It’s a pretty fierce competition as to which company (Microsoft or Google) is spying on your personal habits more, but my money is on Google at this point. Call me a nut, but just wait and see in the next few years.
I agree. Who cares about JavaScript performance? Computers are very fast these days and vast majority of sites do not use JavaScript extensively – not to the extent where performance differences on core duo’s are important (or eveny my old good Athlon 64). Firefox performance is increasing from version to version, so there is no need to worry – when sites will use more JS, FX will be ready :)
Firefox is a winner when it comes to extensions and overall quality.
Indeed, Firefox has more features, but when it comes to general user experience, it miserably falls behind Chrome. By “user experience” I mean regular freezing and lack of response from tabs, memory eating, and general slow response when many tabs are opened and PC was idle for some time.
When Google is saying each tab is a separate process, those are not empty words. I really have a feeling that each tab is like an independent application, with no freezing and hanging anytime during the use.
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